As William Eskridge and coauthor, Christopher Riano, argue in their new book, "Marriage Equality: From Outlaws to In‐Laws," the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges requiring states to recognize same‐sex marriages came faster and with broader public support than anyone would have thought possible in 2001.
Indeed, many federal judges appointed by Republican presidents voted to invalidate the Defense of Marriage Act or state laws barring same‐sex marriages between 2009 and 2015, while former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, among other conservative leaders, also endorsed gay marriage.
This new book tells the inside story of the judicial deliberations in marriage equality cases but also defends these decisions from the perspective of the original public meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, constitutional precedents, the institution of marriage itself, and even sincere and learned analyses of scripture.
The authors conclude with three chapters about the contours of ongoing debates about religious liberty, the relationship options that states ought to recognize, and abortion.
In this live panel, Eskridge will discuss his book with former chairman of the National Organization for Marriage Maggie Gallagher and Ilya Shapiro, Director of the Cato Institute's Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies.
Join the conversation on Twitter with #CatoSCOTUS.
